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Speech & Debate Team Competes at Nationals
The USC Speech & Debate team qualified 26 students to National Catholic Forensic League Grand Nationals in Sacramento, California, for a tournament that occurred over Memorial Day Weekend. Qualifying in debate were Public Forum teams Hunter Lantzman and Caleb Troughtzmantz, and Anvi Kumar and Harshini Sakhthivel (who were unable to attend the competition after being added from the alternate list). Three Policy Debate teams also qualified—Jacob Lantzman and Yash Lahoti, Spencer Miller and Eva Schenker, and Meghan Joon and Mallika Matharu—the first to represent USC in this event. All four USC Lincoln-Douglas debaters qualified to nationals, including Amna Amin, Neale Misquitta, Ariana Chiu, and Raahema Durrani. Raahema went 5–0 in the preliminary rounds to become the first USC debater ever to do so at a national tournament and placed 17th nationally. Qualifying in speech were Declamation competitor Rita Beauchamp; Extemporaneous speakers Chase Miller, Justin Brandwein, Thomas Mologne, and Roderick Smith; Oral Interpers Laura Lapham and Hannah Sanner; Original Orators Tana Mahajan and Krisha Monpara; and Dramatic Performers Saraj Quinto, Erin Graham, and Katherine Starr. Senior Speech Captain Saraj broke the top 48 in the nation, narrowly missing a chance to be USC’s first-ever national finalist and finishing seventh overall. The team enjoyed another terrific national-level performance in Salt Lake City this June at the NSDA national tournament, which is considered to be the largest academic competition in the U.S. Chase Miller ended his career placing 16th overall of nearly 300 of the best in the country in Domestic Extemp.
Public Forum debaters Macey Kaplan and Arushi Kewalramani broke to the eighth round of competition with a 9–3 record in preliminaries. Additionally, they competed in International Public Forum Debate and achieved USC School District’s highest placing, with a seventh place (quarterfinal) finish against teams from around the world. Justin Brandwein and Saraj Quinto ended their respective careers in Domestic Extemp and Dramatic Interpretation. Justin made the third round of Extemp Debate and Saraj was chosen to judge Middle School Nationals. Amna Amin anchored Team Pittsburgh in World Parliamentary debate, a position she gained through a voting of area coaches this past March. The team ended with a 3–3 record and Amna made the fifth round of Extemp Debate. Krisha Monpara competed in Informative Oratory and made the fifth round of Expository. n
Left to right are Speech & Debate members Krisha Monpara, Amna Amin, Arushi Kewalramani, Macey Kaplan, team advisor Ben Edwards, Justin Brandwein, Chase Miller, and Saraj Quinto
Students Excel at Japanese Speech Contest Grace Eden
This past March, 14 of Sensei Junko Kapples’ Japanese students from USC High School participated in the 2016 High School Japanese speech contest, hosted by the JapanAmerica Society of Pennsylvania (JASP) and the University of Pittsburgh’s Asian Studies Center, at the William Pitt Union on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. This year, 110 students from various area schools, including Upper St. Clair, participated in either the poster contest or a contest for one of the four levels of speech (beginner, intermediate, advanced, or advanced plus). USCHS students Hashim Durrani, Riley Davis, Harris Altherr, Macey Mesinere, Anna Culhane, Ethan Quinto, Austin Li, John Chakos, Cassidy Turner, Jade Callas,
Students, staff, and USC administration celebrating the contest results, left to right, are Christine Mussomeli, Hashim Durrani, Daniel Beck, Clare Reinone, Erin Graham, Sensei Junko Kapples, Dr. Lou Angelo, Deanna Baird, and Dr. Tim Wagner 66
UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
Grace Eden, and Erin Graham represented the Japanese Level 1 class in the poster contest. Clare Rainone represented the Japanese Level 3 class, and Clare also competed in the intermediate level speech competition. Veteran Alison Mesinere, former Japanese Level 3 student, participated in the advanced speech contest. All three awards for the poster contest were given to USC contestants—Erin Graham came in first, Hashim Durrani took second, and Grace Eden took third. Also, Clare Rainone received the third place award for the intermediate level speech competition. The participants browsed various booths while they waited to be called upon for their presentation. There were booths at which students could make traditional origami or calligraphy. Personally, I enjoyed learning how to make origami, while being instructed in Japanese. While I am only in Japanese level 1 and do not have a wide range of vocabulary, I was amazed at how I used my intuitive listening skills to infer what the instructor’s commands meant, even when I was unfamiliar with the words she used. I responded, using simple signal phrases, including Japanese words for “yes,” “no,” “I understand,” and “I do not understand.” Some of the booths represented colleges that offer Japanese-related programs, and I Fall 2016
was able to learn about how I can continue my Japanese-learning experience at a university level, including schools like Carnegie Mellon (CMU) and Temple. CMU advertised the various clubs on its campus that center on Japan and its culture, including a Japanese cooking club which meets to cook and enjoy Japanese food. A Temple representative spoke about how that school offers Japanese classes and also has its own independent English-speaking TempleJapan campus, located in Tokyo. Temple also offers a summer experience in Japan for high school students who are interested in learning more about the Japanese culture and language. The High School Japanese speech contest was rewarding. We learned not only about our given topic, but also what it takes to memorize a speech that is in one of the most difficult languages to learn for native English speakers. We enjoyed meeting other Pittsburgh area students who also study Japanese and we are eager to participate again in 2017! n Grace Eden, daughter of Marisa and Brian Eden, is a senior at Upper St. Clair High School. Young Writer’s Guild is for any USC student, grade eight and above, to write voluntarily for UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY. Contact usctoday@uscsd.k12.pa.us for more information.